A lot of it was ballots that were (newly legally) “harvested” on election day—and then it took up to 21 days to get them all counted. (250K in Orange County alone!)
No they shouldn’t have the law, but in truth it goes up against the edge of lots of stuff that has long been legal and practiced elsewhere—following up with those who haven’t voted on the day of, dropping applications for absentee voting off or “harvesting” them, if you will, canvassing door to door, etc.
The real crime was having a criminal (or grotesquely inept) Romney at the head of the GOP, not countering, let alone effectively countering, the Dems’ exploitation of the new law. Forget about fuming about the law, this is CA, after all. But the GOP should have been all over it, using it equally for their side. And they weren’t.
Either Ronna ROMNEY McDaniel is corrupt, like her uncle and cousins—or she is inept. Yet, Trump just tweeted out his enthusiastic support for her to continue in her position through 2020. Qsters can somehow hope that there is a sting operation going on against her, but I doubt that’s the story here. I think Trump and Javanka are still deluded about some sort of GOPe/Dem?uniparty willingness to cooperate with them.
9YearLurker, I get all that, but the way I see it, this type of legislation will be put into law all across the country even in red states. Sure. This is “legal” in the way that any kind of gamed approach to a law is “legal”, and as you said, is largely the result of incremental erosions of the electoral process to artificially tilt the legality of elections in a way that benefits the Left.
Mark my words-it will show up in ballot initiatives everywhere. You get the requisite number of signatures in most places, and it gets put in front of the electorate as a ballot question. Once that happens, it will be couched in the most benign and democracy-friendly language you can possibly imagine.
After all, who wants to deny people the “right” to have their vote counted? Only mean, totalitarian Republicans, that’s who. Normal, reasonable people will see these ballot questions worded to “Protect the right of voters to have their vote counted”.
When I learned of this (I know I am late to the game on this) and read about it, I saw immediately that the foundation for it (in California) was being laid long before it was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in 2016.
This was a carefully thought out, calculated move on the part of the left, using tactics and procedures devised in advance by the left, with the law worded to facilitate the procedures the Left had already constructed, and done in such a way that most non-leftist lawmakers and the general public would not visualize in advance.
I consider myself generally pretty well educated and tuned in to political matters, more than the above-average civically-minded voter (due in large part to Free Republic) and was unaware of just how this tactic would be executed by the Left.
There is not even the slightest bit of doubt, none, that the Left in California (and nationwide) fully intended to game this and future elections in just this manner, and had been crafting the legislative process to get it passed and implemented.
Make no mistake-the Left in the rest of the country, after seeing how the Democrats swept the election there, is having long conversations with the Left in states like California. The processes and procedures used there are going to be forklifted into EVERY SINGLE STATE IN THE UNION, regardless of how “red” or “blue” the state is.
And that is going to put the Republican party at a major, long term, and unresolvable disadvantage. The very nature of conservatives, who tend to function largely as individuals rather than a hive-mindset as the Left does, will make this a major and unrecoverable insult to conservatives.
We on the Right won’t “do it like they do” even if our political and national well-being is at stake and in danger of extinction. We don’t believe in “gaming” the system (and definitely not cheating the system or breaking laws) because in comparison to the Left, it is a core value of who we perceive ourselves to be.
I don’t think I am being melodramatic here. I believe that, unless something is done to reverse this trend, this is going to make us extinct on the right as a viable political entity within the law. Personally, I live in a blue state with zero political representation. Zero. It has been like that my entire life. But I am going to start a personal project to contact every single legislator at the state and federal level to express my concern about this. It will likely fall on deaf ears, at best as deaf as those of my wife to whom this kind of thing is not important, and at worst, on the ears of people who wish me and those like me ill.
But I am going to do it anyway.
I recognize I am tilting at windmills. But short of the type of violent conflict which I aim to avoid until events beyond my control and not of my choosing occur that inexorably sweep me up in them, I see this as my only recourse.
So, instead...I will tilt at windmills.